From Denial to Love
by Spirit Seer
Summary: Sakura was stubborn. She did NOT love Uchiha Itachi. It would take a combinations of friends and Inner Sakura to make her see otherwise. ItaSaku AU, using verse of A Continuous Circle and And the Circle Comes Round by JUCHKO


A/N: Hey everyone! :D I've been wanting to write this one for a while. This is based during the verse of "A Continuous Circle" by JUCHKO, an awesome ItaSaku fic. If you haven't read it, you need to go read it. Now.

Disclaimers: "I Won't Say [I'm In Love]" is copyright of Disney and whoever else holds possession in anything in regard to the song, and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. "A Continuous Circle" belongs to JUCHKO. I own this fic.

Please enjoy!

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**From Denial to Love**

Hanako and Inuka couldn't believe how dense Sakura was. It was obvious Itachi liked her and that she liked him back; but, it was as if, somehow, her brain was refusing to process that simple fact. They couldn't understand why it would be so difficult, either.

How hard was it to admit that you're in love?

**If there's a prize for rotten judgment**

**I guess I've already won that**

**No man is worth the aggravation**

**That's ancient history-been there**

**Done that!**

Sakura knew she didn't have much of a love life. That fact had long since been established. To her, love was a losing battle. She'd already tried it, and her only reward was a broken heart. In the end, she figured her heart must be dead or something; because, she knew that, after Sasuke, she was never going to fall in love again. He'd taken her heart and crushed it like a useless rock, and she was never going to love another man in any future that she could dream of. Period.

Why question it? Why did everyone keep insisting for her to try again? What was the _point?_ It was not like she could ever love again and _win_. Fate hated her with too much of a passion for that.

She was never going to love again. End of story. No more questions asked.

_**Who d'ya think you're kiddin'**_

_**He's the Earth and heaven to you**_

_**Try to keep it hidden**_

_**Honey, we can see right through you**_

_**Girl, ya can't conceal it**_

_**We know how you ya feel and**_

_**Who you're thinking of**_

Hanako and Inuka caught Sakura unconsciously watching after Itachi with a smile as he walked away after saying hello and reminding her not to be late for dinner. Obviously, Sakura missed the barest heat that graced the tops of her cheeks in a light, happy blush, too. They promptly tried the hide the chuckles for the umpteenth time, but they didn't do that good of a job this time either.

"What are you snickering at?" Sakura asked them, her confusion reaching the breaking point and her blush disappearing to as though it had never been (though it had been nigh invisible to begin with).

They shook their heads, still giggling. Then it broke out into quiet laughter. (At least for Hanako, it did; Inuka was never quiet.)

Sakura could feel her patience wearing thin concerning this reoccurring phenomenon. "Tell me!" she insisted heatedly.

Inuka shook her head again, laughing, "It's you, silly!"

"What-?"

"I don't know why you refuse to see it," Hanako murmured through her chuckles.

Now Sakura was even more confused. "Refuse to see what?"

"C'mon, girl, we've known you for too long by now." Inuka grinned. "Just admit it already and save us the trouble of dragging it out of you."

"…Drag what out of me?" Sakura muttered, now feeling a little annoyed for not having her question answered.

"That you like Itachi!" Inuka sang.

There was no light, faint, unconscious blush across the tops of Sakura's cheeks this time- her whole face bled crimson.

**No chance, now way, I won't say it, no, no**

_**You swoon, you sigh, why deny it, uh-oh!**_

**It's too cliché**

**I won't say I'm in love**

"I-I don't like Itachi!" Sakura stuttered out, her face burning.

"I believe it is safe to say that, not only do we believe otherwise, your face betrays that obviously blatant lie," Hanako said with a smile.

"It's futile to resist, my dear." Inuka grinned again. "Just admit that you like Itachi already."

"I DON'T LIKE ITACHI!!" Sakura shouted frantically, earning weird stares from the passerby. Her face only got brighter as she attempted to continue, albeit at a lower, more muttered volume, "I can't! I'm not in love!!"

Hanako and Inuka only laughed and watched as Sakura's face, unbelievably, turned a darker shade of red with each denunciation of the truth.

She'd give in with time. She had to.

If not, then they'd make her see the truth.

Inuka gave an evil grin inside. The levels of fun were increasing with each passing day of Sakura's continued denial.

**I thought my heart had learned its lesson**

**It feels so good when you start out**

**My head is screaming, get a grip, girl**

**Unless you're dying to cry your heart out**

**Oh**

Later that night, Sakura was in her room in the Uchihas' house (where she was staying while she was in the past, not because of Itachi, she assured herself), thinking about what Hanako and Inuka had said. How could she like Itachi? She already established the fact that it was not possible for her to fall in love!

…_And yet, why did you suddenly feel weird around Itachi at dinner tonight? That's never happened before,_ Inner Sakura reminded her.

Sakura buried her face beneath her pillow with a groan. Why did her heart feel funny whenever she was around Itachi? This was just like she had first felt with Sasuke-

_No,_ she furiously thought to herself as she bit her lip, hard. She was not going there. She was not going to fall in love again. After all, she knew how the story went: you fall in love, and then you get your heart broken.

After all, loving Itachi was even a more sure-fire way to break her heart than even Sasuke had been. She was a foreigner in this time period of the past, and Time must take her path. As soon as she left, Itachi was sure to forget about her (but even if he did come to like her, he would most assuredly fall out of it, and _then_ forget about her), and then kill his clan like he was scheduled to. He wouldn't think of her anymore, even though she would remember every detail with him.

How could she willingly let him dance on the shards of her remaining heart? All he could do was destroy what was left of it, crushing what Sasuke hadn't when he betrayed their village to chase after Itachi for killing the said clan!

Her heart obviously didn't learn from the first time it gave in to love's appeals; and, now, the only denouement her story would have were the destruction of her heart and everlasting tears.

Why did it never listen to reason….

Sakura grit her teeth, her head now out from under the pillow, and punched such comfy device with the side of her fist viciously. If her heart didn't want to listen to reason… she would _make_ it listen to reason! If she had to tell herself she didn't like Itachi (her stomach was NOT fluttering at the mere mention of his name; she was sure- it _had_ to be disagreeing with something from dinner, despite how his mother's cooking was so drop-dead delicious that that never happened) a thousand times to convince the perfidious organ it was a fact, then that was what she would do!

_**You keep on denying**_

_**Who you are and how you're feeling**_

_**Baby, we're not buying**_

_**Hon, we saw ya hit the ceiling**_

_**Face it like a grown up**_

_**When ya gonna own up**_

_**That ya got, got, got it bad**_

The next day, Sakura met up with Inuka and Hanako again. The first words- though Sakura _really_ should've expected it- out of Inuka's grinning mouth were-

"Have you admitted you like Itachi yet?"

Sakura glared with all the force she could muster. It had no effect on her, unfortunately, only serving to further their conviction. _Time to try a different tactic,_ Sakura thought determinedly, fully intending to fight to the bitter end (hers or theirs), but Inuka beat her to the punch.

"I don't even know why you're fighting it," Inuka commented. "C'mon, it's extremely obvious you like him. Just say it- it won't kill you."

"I do _NOT._ Like. Itachi," Sakura ground out.

"Please be mature about this, Sakura," Hanako chipped in. "If your face wasn't enough of an indicator yesterday, your actions have been more than enough to speak for you. Why do you keep trying to hide it?"

"I don't have to hide what's. _Not. There."_ Sakura bit out.

Inuka sighed as though dealing with a frustrating child, but then again, they were. "Sakura, when are you going to give up trying to keep up this futile lie? What's so terrible about liking Itachi?"

Sakura thought a minute. "Actually, there's nothing terrible," Sakura said, and she paused, Hanako and Inuka almost finishing thinking that they had gotten through to her when she finished, "since _I don't like him._"

Inuka nearly screamed in exasperation while Hanako sighed.

They would get through to her, they vowed.

One of these days, Sakura was going to admit that she liked Uchiha Itachi.

**No chance, no way, I won't say it, no, no**

_**Give up, give in**_

_**Check the grin you're in love**_

**The scene won't play, I won't say I'm in love**

Once again, Sakura found herself punching her poor, defenseless pillow as she thought about her situation and the persistence of Inuka and Hanako that night. Why couldn't they just leave her alone already?! She's already _said_ she was NOT in love with Itachi, so she was NOT in love with Itachi!

Unfortunately, that was the exact moment in which her Inner decided to pitch her two cents into her fountain of scattered thoughts. _"You know, from this perspective, I think you're just in denial."_

Sakura's jaw dropped. _"What're you doing taking their side?!" _she hissed back to her subconscious.

"_Because it's true."_ Inner Sakura chuckled. _"Have you seen your face when you're thinking about him? It's very cute. I think you ARE in love."_

"_I AM NOT IN LOVE!!!"_ Sakura shouted back. _"It's never going to happen!! I'm not in love, and I'm not gonna say so!!!!"_

_**You're doing flips, read our lips**_

_**You're in love**_

**You're way off base, I won't say it**

**Get off my case, I won't say it**

_**Girl don't be proud**_

_**It's OK you're in love**_

"_Have your felt your blood pressure lately? It really skyrockets when you're in Itachi's vicinity; and, as your Inner I can feel your lurching stomach as well. I think those are symptoms of the disease of love,"_ Inner Sakura teased.

"_I'm the medic, not you!!"_ Sakura hissed heatedly. _"And I don't care if you're my Inner! You're not going to make me say I'm in love with Itachi-!"_ Sakura stopped, horrified, as her face reddened and she realized that she had been forced to say she did.

Inner Sakura smirked. _"Made ya say it,"_ she sang.

Sakura glared. "Doesn't mean I meant it!!"

Now she laughed. _"I don't know why you're still fighting it, and that's saying something, since I'm _your_ Inner. I'm supposed to know every little thing about you,"_ Inner Sakura stated.

Sakura let her customary mask slip a little. _"Why shouldn't you know? Or maybe the probabilities haven't hit you yet. Do you want what happened with Sasuke to repeat itself? Do you want to end this with a beyond-repairable heart this time? Do you want to do _nothing_ but cry until we die, bemoaning a cruel world? Haven't you realized that fate hates me? I'm destined for never finding love and always ending up with a broken heart! Why do you want to go through that again and again? I didn't know you were both a masochist _AND _a sadist, Inner." _

Inner Sakura fell silent for a minute. Then, she murmured, _"How can you be so sure that's what's going to happen? You haven't even told him that you like him yet, and who says another broken heart is what the future holds? You've only been in love once, my dear. Maybe the second time's the charm."_

Sakura was stuck between shock and realization. _"But how can it not? How can it all be _okay_?" _Sakura struggled with her words._ "How can he _not_ break my heart? We're here in the past, and history must take its course. Itachi _will_ kill his clan and I _WILL_ have to leave. We'll go back to a time when we're enemies on opposite sides, and no one will remember this 'might have been'. How can you still say it _won't_ lead to heartache?"_

Inner Sakura sighed. _"Life is a risk, dear. Everything is, including love. Maybe what you've painted will happen; maybe it won't. _But_ you won't know that until you actually give it a try."_ Inner Sakura paused, then continued, _"Look, I'm no fortune-teller, and neither are Inuka and Hanako, and regardless of what will happen in the future, the future is not 'now'. You can call this moment in the past 'now', you could call it 'then', but it still isn't 'will be'. You don't really know what will truly happen until you act on it and see the consequences of that action, so why not give it a shot? If _they_ can see you're in love, and _I_ can see you're in love, maybe you should let _yourself_ see that you're in love."_ She held up her hands within their subconscious realm to quell Sakura's outburst, before saying, _"You don't have to _say_ it right now if you don't want to. But if you allow yourself the grace of admitting it internally, then maybe next time you can bring yourself to vocalize it. And then you can tell Itachi. After all, until you both get together, who knows what will happen. Your apocalyptic future may not be as full of destruction as you think_. _The future isn't always worst-case scenarios, you know._"

Silence blanketed the realm for a good short while. Inner Sakura piped up for one last piece of advice before she retreated to the recesses of Sakura's subconscious again:

"_Love isn't necessarily a bad thing, you know. It's one of the purest emotions that exist."_

**Oh**

**At least out loud, I won't say I'm in love**

Sakura was left to return to the regular world as she pondered her Inner's words. Could it be possible to love Itachi without getting her heart broken?

Inner Sakura's words came back to her:

"_Life is a risk, dear. Everything is, including love. Maybe what you've painted will happen; maybe it won't. _But_ you won't know that until you actually give it a try."_

Sakura sighed. Maybe she had been too dense about this. You like someone, you tell them how you feel, right? How hard is that?

…_Harder than one could imagine,_ Sakura thought as she felt her face heating up at the prospect of telling Itachi that she liked him. Okay, this was going to be a little difficult….

But she had admitted to herself that she liked him. That had to be a start, right? She grinned.

It was a definitely a start.

Then an image of Inuka attacking her with a hug and yelling, "I told you so!!" while Hanako smiled happily in the background came to mind.

Sakura grimaced. No, she wouldn't say it aloud yet. She wasn't going to give Inuka and Hanako the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so."

But she could always tell Itachi later… just not now.

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A/N: What did you think? Please share your thoughts and review! I love reviews, and they'll make my day. :) Thank you!!


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